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Abstract

In the Renaissance, the bodies of individuals were understood as guides to their internal
identities, which influenced the public understanding of the figure represented in art—be it in
terms of politics, personal life, or legacy. The classicizing and religious paintings by Titian (c.
1488/90-1576) show the subject's state of being, at a particular moment in a story, through the
use of body language. The body is a vehicle for narrative that demonstrates the sitter's identity,
relating the intricacies of the body to both the mind and the story. By exploring the humanist
combination of philosophical theories regarding the relationship between the soul and the body,
it is clear that Titian used these concepts to elevate the human figures in his narrative paintings.
Formal analysis and Renaissance artistic theories by Alberti and others suggest that Renaissance
artists operated under the assumption that how their sitters appeared was tantamount to
representing their identities. Current scholarship has not yet considered this particular
relationship in Titian's works. Analysis of several of Titian's depictions of female subjects—
such as Mary Magdalene, Salome, Callisto, and Ariadne—suggests that while Titian fulfilled
Alberti's guidelines for figural narrative depictions, he went further, giving the women in his
paintings identities and thus agency. In this way, Titian makes it clear that Alberti's emphasis on
the role of figures in a painted narrative does not do enough to give figures identity. By
representing these females, not only through flesh, but also with identity, Titian creates paintings
that act as equalizers for the female gender during the Renaissance.